I don't understand why this condition has not gotten more traction in the discussion with COVID ventilator use. Normally General Anesthesia for surgery is only for a couple of hours, covid use it is for weeks. Seems the side effects would be much more pronounced with covid, even if its life saving. Also means to me, all the more reason to be very preventive as to contracting covid.
This GA article is pre COVID 2018:
"Side Effects With the short-term side effects of general anesthesia, a patient might feel groggy or confused when they first wake, particularly if they are older. Other common side effects include nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, sore throat, shivering, sleepiness and mild hoarseness.
“The risk of dying during general anesthesia in a typical hospital today is exceedingly low,” said Roderic Eckenhoff, MD, the Austin Lamont Professor of Anesthesia at the University of Pennsylvania. “We’re good at the acute side effects of general anesthetics.”
But anesthesiologists are now grappling with a new and previously unrecognized problem — long-term cognitive issues.
“The idea though that general anesthesia and/or surgery could be associated with longer-term effects that last well beyond the period of the surgery itself is new,” Dr. Eckenhoff added. “That’s something that has developed over the last 15, 20 years and has really become a hot topic in perioperative medicine and anesthesiology.”
